Wireless device, radio network node, and methods performed therein for handling communication in a wireless communication network

ABSTRACT

Some embodiments herein relate to a method performed by a wireless device for handling communication of the wireless device in a wireless communication network, wherein the wireless device is served by a radio network node. The wireless device performs a beam tracking of one or more beams for a set of detected neighbour cells for tracking one or more best beams of respective neighbour cell based on measured signal strength or measured signal quality. The wireless device further receives an indication from the radio network node, wherein the indication indicates a target cell for the wireless device. When the target cell is in the set of detected neighbour cells, the wireless device further initiates a random access procedure associated with a best target beam for the target cell, wherein the best target beam is selected based on the beam tracking performed prior to receiving the indication.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments herein relate to a wireless device, a radio network node and methods performed therein regarding wireless communication. Furthermore, a computer program and a computer-readable storage medium are also provided herein. In particular, embodiments herein relate to handling communication, e.g. handling or enabling handover, of the wireless device in a wireless communication network.

BACKGROUND

In a typical wireless communication network, wireless devices, also known as wireless communication devices, mobile stations, stations (STA) and/or user equipments (UE), communicate via a Radio access Network (RAN) with one or more core networks (CN). The RAN covers a geographical area which is divided into service areas or cell areas, with each service area or cell area being served by radio network node such as an access node e.g. a Wi-Fi access point or a radio base station (RBS), which in some networks may also be called, for example, a “NodeB” or “eNodeB” or “gNodeB”. The service area or cell area is a geographical area where radio coverage is provided by the radio network node. The radio network node operates on radio frequencies to communicate over an air interface with the wireless devices within range of the radio network node. The radio network node communicates over a downlink (DL) to the wireless device and the wireless device communicates over an uplink (UL) to the radio network node.

A Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation telecommunication network, which evolved from the second generation (2G) Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). The UMTS terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) is essentially a RAN using wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) and/or High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) for communication with user equipments. In a forum known as the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), telecommunications suppliers propose and agree upon standards for present and future generation networks and UTRAN specifically, and investigate enhanced data rate and radio capacity. In some RANs, e.g. as in UMTS, several radio network nodes may be connected, e.g., by landlines or microwave, to a controller node, such as a radio network controller (RNC) or a base station controller (BSC), which supervises and coordinates various activities of the plural radio network nodes connected thereto. The RNCs are typically connected to one or more core networks.

Specifications for the Evolved Packet System (EPS) have been completed within the 3^(rd) 3GPP and this work continues in the coming 3GPP releases, such as 4G and 5G networks such as New Radio (NR). The EPS comprises the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), also known as the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) radio access network, and the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), also known as System Architecture Evolution (SAE) core network. E-UTRAN or LTE is a 3GPP radio access technology wherein the radio network nodes are directly connected to the EPC core network. As such, the Radio Access Network (RAN) of an EPS has an essentially “flat” architecture comprising radio network nodes connected directly to one or more core networks.

With the emerging 5G technologies such as new radio (NR), the use of very many transmit- and receive-antenna elements is of great interest as it makes it possible to utilize beamforming, such as transmit-side and receive-side beamforming. Transmit-side beamforming means that the transmitter can amplify the transmitted signals in a selected direction or directions, while suppressing the transmitted signals in other directions. Similarly, on the receive-side, a receiver can amplify signals from a selected direction or directions, while suppressing unwanted signals from other directions.

Beamforming allows the signal to be stronger for an individual connection. On the transmit-side this may be achieved by a concentration of the transmitted power in the desired direction(s), and on the receive-side this may be achieved by an increased receiver sensitivity in the desired direction(s). This beamforming enhances throughput and coverage of the connection. It also allows reducing the interference from unwanted signals, thereby enabling several simultaneous transmissions over multiple individual connections using the same resources in the time-frequency grid, so-called multi-user Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO).

Scheduled reference signals, called channel-state information reference signals (CSI-RS), are transmitted when needed for a particular connection. Channel-state information (CSI) comprises channel quality indicator (CQI), precoding matrix indicator (PMI), and rank indicator (RI). The CQI is reported by wireless device to the radio network node. The wireless device indicates modulation scheme and coding scheme to the radio network node. To predict the downlink channel condition, CQI feedback by the wireless device may be used as an input. CQI reporting can be based on PMI and RI. PMI is indicated by the wireless device to the radio network node, which precoding matrix may be used for downlink transmission which is determined by RI. The wireless device further indicates the RI to the radio network node, i.e. RI indicates the number of layers that should be used for downlink transmission to the wireless device. The decision when and how to transmit the CSI-RS is made by the radio network node and the decision is signalled to the involved wireless devices using a so-called measurement grant. When the wireless device receives a measurement grant it measures on a corresponding CSI-RS. The radio network node may choose to transmit CSI-RSs to a wireless device only using beam(s) that are known to be strong for that wireless device, to allow the wireless device to report more detailed information about those beams. Alternatively, the radio network node may choose to transmit CSI-RSs also using beam(s) that are not known to be strong for that wireless device, for instance to enable fast detection of new beam(s) in case the wireless device is moving.

The radio network nodes of a new radio (NR) network transmit other reference signals as well. For instance, the radio network nodes may transmit so-called demodulation reference signals (DMRS) when transmitting control information or data to a wireless device. Such transmissions are typically made using beam(s) that are known to be strong for that wireless device.

In LTE, the main goal of CSI-RSs is to obtain channel state feedback for up to eight transmit antenna ports to assist the radio network node in its precoding operations. Release 10 supports transmission of CSI-RS for 1, 2, 4 and 8 transmit antenna ports. CSI-RSs also enable the wireless device to estimate the CSI for multiple cells rather than just its serving cell, to support future multi-cell cooperative transmission schemes. Notice that the purpose of CSI-RS measurements in LTE is not to support mobility across cells.

The CSI-RS resource allocation for a given subframe is shown in FIG. 1. Code division multiplexing (CDM) codes of length two are used, so that CSI-RSs on two antenna ports share two resource elements (RE) on a given subcarrier. The resource elements used in the case of two CSI-RS antenna ports are a subset of those used for four and eight antenna ports; this helps to simplify the implementation. The total number of supported antenna ports may be forty, which can be used to give a frequency-reuse factor of five between cells with eight antenna ports per cell, or a factor of twenty in the case of two antenna ports.

The CSI-RS configuration is wireless device-specific i.e. provided via dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signalling. When configured, CSI-RSs are present only in some subframes following a given duty cycle and subframe offset. The duty cycle and offset of the subframes containing CSI-RSs and the CSI-RS pattern used in those subframes are provided to a Release 10 wireless device through RRC signalling. The duty cycle and subframe offset are jointly coded, while the CSI-RS pattern is configured independently of these two parameters.

In summary, the CSI-RS configuration comprises the following, at least in LTE:

-   -   The number of CSI-RS: e.g. 1, 2, 4 or 8;     -   The CSI-RS periodicity: e.g. 5 ms, 10 ms, 20 ms, 40 ms or 80 ms;     -   The CSI-RS subframe offset within the CSI-RS period;     -   The exact CSR-RS configuration within a resource-block pair—that         is exactly what resource elements from the 40 possible REs are         used for the up to eight CSI-RS in a resource-block pair.

In the context of cooperative MIMO, it may be possible to improve the performance of channel estimation, see FIG. 2, and especially interference estimation, by coordinating CSI-RS transmissions across multiple service areas. In Release 10 it is therefore possible to ‘mute’ a set of REs in data transmissions from a service area. The locations of these REs, known as a ‘muting pattern’, may be chosen to avoid colliding with CSI-RS transmissions from other service areas and hence improve the inter-cell measurement quality. Notice that in the multi-cell case, there can be some level of coordination so that CSI-RS resource allocation tries to avoid the interference across transmission and reception points (TRP) and/or service areas, as shown in the FIG. 3 where CSI-RS configuration 0 differs from CSI-RS configuration 1 that also differs from CSI-RS configuration 2. Another important aspect relates to how the wireless device receiver handles the CSI-RS. In LTE, time and frequency (T/F) synchronization is obtained from primary synchronization signal (PSS), secondary synchronization signal (SSS), and/or cell specific reference signal (CRS), and a fast Fourier transform (FFT) is applied to relevant CSI-RS symbols and removes the embedded own-cell identity (ID) or RRC configured virtual cell ID, which are 504 possibilities.

The work on Rel-13 full dimension (FD)-MIMO specification in LTE primary includes the support for beamforming in LTE. The wireless device can be configured with a set of CSI-RS processes that may be associated at the network side to different downlink (DL) beams, which may be different for the different subframes. With beamformed CSI-RS, the wireless device should measure CSI on CSI-RS resources that are beamformed towards different directions, see FIG. 4.

Rel-13 FD-MIMO specification in LTE supports an enhanced CSI-RS reporting called Class B for beamformed CSI-RS. Therein, an LTE RRC_CONNECTED wireless device can be configured with K beams, where e.g. 8>K>1, and where it may be 1,2,4 or 8 port number for each beam. For feedback purposes such as PMI, RI and CQI there is a CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI) per CSI-RS. The wireless device reports CRI to indicate the preferred beam where the CRI is wideband, RI, CQI, and/or PMI is based on legacy codebook, i.e. Rel-12, and CRI reporting period is an integer multiple of the RI. For Rel-14 enhancements in Full Dimension (eFD)-MIMO, the following is being considered as potential enhancements such as the extension of CSI-RS antenna port number up to 32 i.e. {20, 24, 28, 32} CSI-RS ports and the introduction of aperiodic CSI-RS, see FIG. 5.

According to the TS 36.331 v. 13.0.0 the CSI-RS configuration, encoded in the CSI-RS-Config IE, can either be transmitted in the RRCConnectionSetup, RRCConnectionResume or the RRC Connection Reconfiguration, with or without mobility Control Information (i.e. in a handover command). See FIG. 6 wherein the CSI-RS configuration is transmitted in the RRCConnectionSetup.

CSI-RS may be the primary RS for beam management. Compared to the beamformed CSI-RS in LTE, perhaps the main additional use case would be the analog beam sweep, possibly also used for fine T/F tracking. Hence, more flexibility for the NR CSI-RS in NR is also envisioned such as:

-   -   Possibly transmitted within 1, 2 or 4 symbols;     -   Configurable bandwidth, i.e. not always full system as in LTE;     -   Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol may         carry CSI-RS only;     -   Aperiodic, semi-persistent and periodic transmissions;

Note: Most of the usage of CSI-RS in LTE and so far, mentioned in NR are related to measurement to support beam management. In addition to that, CSI-RS may be used for radio resource management (RRM) measurements to support inter-cell mobility i.e. movement between different cells, although details have not been defined.

In the following, the mobility in LTE and in particular the handover preparation between radio network nodes, denoted as eNodeBs (eNB), is described.

In LTE, the handover of a wireless device in RRC_CONNECTED state is a wireless device-assisted network-controlled Handover (HO), with HO preparation signalling in E-UTRAN:

-   -   Part of the HO command comes from the target eNB and is         transparently forwarded to the wireless device by the source eNB         see actions 6 and 7;     -   To prepare the HO, the source eNB passes all necessary         information to the target eNB (e.g. E-radio access bearer (RAB)         attributes and RRC context) see action 8;     -   Both the source eNB and the wireless device keep some context,         e.g. cell—radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI), to enable         the return of the wireless device in case of HO failure;     -   The wireless device accesses the target cell via random access         channel (RACH) following a contention-free procedure using a         dedicated RACH preamble or following a contention-based         procedure if dedicated RACH preambles are not available; the         wireless device uses the dedicated preamble until the handover         procedure is finished (successfully or unsuccessfully), see         action 9;     -   If the RACH procedure towards the target cell is not successful         within a certain time, the wireless device initiates radio link         failure recovery using a suitable cell;     -   No robust header compression (ROHC) context is transferred at         handover;     -   ROHC context may be kept at handover within the same eNB.

The preparation and execution phase of the HO procedure is performed without CN involvement, e.g. EPC in the case of LTE, i.e. preparation messages are directly exchanged between the eNBs. The release of the resources at the source side during the HO completion phase is triggered by the eNB. The FIG. 7 depicts the basic handover scenario where neither mobility management entity (MME) nor serving gateway changes:

Handover preparation in LTE is further described i.e. actions 3, 4, 5 and 6 in FIG. 7. The Handover preparation is initiated by the serving eNodeB that makes decision for a handover, Action 3, possibly based on MEASUREMENT REPORT and RRM information to hand off the wireless device. Then the follow steps occur:

-   -   Action 4: The source eNB issues a HANDOVER REQUEST message to         the target eNB passing necessary information to prepare the HO         at the target side (wireless device X2 signalling context         reference at source eNB, wireless device S1 EPC signalling         context reference, target cell ID, KeNB, RRC context including         the C-RNTI of the wireless device in the source eNB, access         stratum (AS)-configuration, enhanced radio access bearer (E-RAB)         context and physical layer ID of the source cell+short medium         access control (MAC)-I for possible radio link failure (RLF)         recovery). Wireless device X2 signalling and/or wireless device         S1 signalling references enable the target eNB to address the         source eNB and the EPC. The E-RAB context includes necessary         radio network layer (RNL) and transport network layer (TNL)         addressing information, and quality of service (QoS) profiles of         the E-RABs.     -   Action 5: Admission control may be performed by the target eNB         dependent on the received E-RAB QoS information to increase the         likelihood of a successful HO, if the resources can be granted         by target eNB. The target eNB configures the required resources         according to the received E-RAB QoS information and reserves a         C-RNTI and optionally a RACH preamble. The AS-configuration to         be used in the target cell can either be specified independently         (i.e. an “establishment”) or as a delta compared to the         AS-configuration used in the source cell (i.e. a         “reconfiguration”).     -   Action 6: The target eNB prepares HO with Layer 1 (L1) and/or         Layer 2 (L2) and sends the HANDOVER REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGE to the         source eNB. The HANDOVER REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGE message includes a         transparent container to be sent to the wireless device as an         RRC message to perform the handover. The container includes a         new C-RNTI, target eNB security algorithm identifiers for the         selected security algorithms, and may include a dedicated RACH         preamble, and possibly some other parameters i.e. access         parameters, System Information Blocks (SIB), etc. The HANDOVER         REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGE message may also include RNL and/or TNL         information for the forwarding tunnels, if necessary.

NOTE: As soon as the source eNB receives the HANDOVER REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGE (ACK), or as soon as the transmission of the handover command is initiated in the downlink, data forwarding may be initiated.

A similar inter-node signalling as in LTE may be assumed as baseline for upcoming generations of telecommunications. Hence, it is expected a similar Xn signalling exchanged between radio network nodes, denoted as gNodeBs in NR, i.e. a Handover Request from serving to target, followed by a Handover Request ACK once admission control occurs in the target.

Thus, in LTE, a handover occurs from the serving cell to the neighbour cell. In order to assist the network, the wireless device is configured to perform RRM measurements for its own cell and compare with the quality of neighbour cells. In other words, the wireless device needs to measure the quality of neighbour cell, report these to the radio network node so a decision can be made.

The radio network node may decide to handover the wireless device from a serving cell to possibly one of the neighbour cell candidates that have been reported. Then, the handover command follows, in LTE this is the RRCConnectionReconfiguration with the IE mobilityControlInformation, containing among other parameters the RACH configuration the wireless device should use to access the target cell such as the physical random access channel (PRACH) time and frequency resources the wireless device should transmit the preamble (possibly also dedicated and allocated in the same message).

Since handover is a costly procedure in terms of radio signalling, and, in some cases (inter-gNodeB i.e. between gNodeBs) network signalling, too frequent handovers and ping-pong handover should be avoided or at least minimized, especially because they may also increase the chances of failure. In addition, for battery saving reasons and load, too frequent measurement reports should be avoided or minimized. Hence, event-triggered reports based on filtered measurements are defined per cell in LTE. There may be requirements on e.g. evaluation period of 200 ms for a certain accuracy and wireless device implementation typically picks a snapshot of 40 ms to perform some coherence and on-coherent average over time and frequency. Snapshot herein meaning a measurement taken at a point in time.

In NR, there will be deployment in higher frequencies and beamforming will be widely used even for the basic control signals and channels, such as reference signals used for RRM. In addition, design principles in 3GPP point to the direction where RACH resources are portioned per DL beam transmitting RS for RRM and synchronization, so called a Synchronization Signal (SS) Block Burst Set. So every SS Block may contain its own RACH configuration i.e. Time/Frequency (T/F) resources and even preamble sub-set. The SS Block will contain in its structure some kind of RS that may be used to indicate the beam, often called tertiary synchronization sequence (TSS), although it can possibly be transmitted as a codeword in the SS Block, jointly with the PSS and/or SSS and the physical broadcast channel (PBCH), see FIG. 8.

Even without directional reciprocity, the implementation enables the target cell to transmit the random access response (RAR) in the strongest DL beam covering the wireless device thanks to the mapping between RACH configuration (including the preamble) and the target cell DL beam. That allows the wireless device to quickly access a narrow beam in the target right after handover execution.

In LTE, RACH resources are defined per cell i.e. when the wireless device receives the Handover (HO) command the wireless device may immediately initiate RACH, at least assuming the wireless device is synchronized (although dedicated resources can be configured). Meanwhile, in NR, RACH resources are defined per DL beam (or groups of DL beams) to allow an efficient RACH detection using analog beamforming (or groups of beams). Hence, the wireless device may select a DL beam before it initiates random access.

In that case, solutions being discussed point in two possible directions:

-   -   wireless device receives a HO command with PRACH mapping to all         possible TSS in the target cell;     -   wireless device receives a HO command with a subset of PRACH         configurations mapped to a subset of TSS in the target cell.

Regardless which case is finally captured in the standards, or even if both are possible, the handover performance could be negatively affected in the case the beam selection in the target cell takes too long time. As described in the baseline, and in the LTE specifications, the wireless device would synchronize with the target only after receiving the HO command and at that time it would select the best DL beam to map to the received RACH resources. However, since transmissions are sparse in time, differently from LTE where CRS is always available in every subframe, at least 10 or 20 ms could be needed until the first possible beam is detected. That could be even worse in analog beamforming, depending on the duration of a full SS Block Burst Set, e.g. intervals longer than 20 ms, which can make handover non-seamless as required in many NR services, such as ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC) or even some mobile broadband (MBB) services. Thus, this may reduce or limit the performance of the wireless communication network.

SUMMARY

An object of embodiments herein is to provide a mechanism that improves the performance of the wireless communication network when using beamforming in a wireless communication network.

According to an aspect the object is achieved by providing a method performed by a wireless device for handling communication of the wireless device in a wireless communication network. The wireless device is served by a radio network node. The wireless device performs a beam tracking of one or more beams for a set of detected neighbour cells for tracking one or more best beams of respective neighbour cell based on measured signal strength or measured signal quality. The wireless device receives an indication from the radio network node, wherein the indication indicates a target cell for the wireless device; and when the target cell is in the set of detected neighbour cells. The wireless device further initiates a random access procedure associated with at least one target beam for the target cell, wherein the at least one target beam is selected based on the beam tracking performed prior to receiving the indication.

Upon receiving the indication such as a handover command, e.g. RRCConnectionReconfiguration with mobilityControlInformation or equivalent such as RRCReconfiguration with synchronization indication, secondary cell group (SCG) change, SCG addition, etc., that is to be used to trigger a handover or an establishment of a secondary cell, the wireless device may thus use up-to-date or latest information from the beam tracking to initiate random access procedure with e.g. a second radio network node, without necessarily waiting to perform additional measurements to select the best DL beam to map to its configured RACH resources.

According to another aspect the object may be achieved by providing a method performed by a radio network node for handling communication of a wireless device in a wireless communication network. The radio network node serves the wireless device. The radio network node transmits configuration data to the wireless device, wherein the configuration data indicates that the wireless device is to perform beam tracking of one or more beams for a set of detected neighbour cells and to initiate a random access procedure associated with at least one target beam for a target cell, wherein the at least one target beam is selected based on a performed beam tracking prior to receiving an indication, wherein the indication indicates a target cell for the wireless device.

According to yet another aspect the object is achieved by providing a wireless device for handling communication of the wireless device in a wireless communication network. The wireless communication network comprises a radio network node being configured to serve the wireless device. The wireless device is configured to perform a beam tracking of one or more beams for a set of detected neighbour cells for tracking one or more best beam of respective neighbour cell based on measured signal strength or measured signal quality. The wireless device is further configured to receive an indication from the radio network node, wherein the indication indicates a target cell for the wireless device. When the target cell is in the set of detected neighbour cells, the wireless device is configured to initiate a random access procedure associated with at least one target beam for the target cell, and the wireless device is configured to select the at least one target beam based on the beam tracking performed prior to receiving the indication.

According to still another aspect the object is achieved by providing a radio network node handling communication of a wireless device in a wireless communication network. The radio network node is configured to serve the wireless device, and to transmit configuration data to the wireless device. The configuration data indicates that the wireless device is to perform beam tracking of one or more beams for a set of detected neighbour cells and to, upon reception of an indication, initiate a random access procedure associated with at least one target beam for a target cell, wherein the at least one target beam is selected based on a performed beam tracking prior to receiving the indication, and wherein the indication indicates the target cell for the wireless device.

It is herein also provided a computer program comprising instructions, which, when executed on at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to carry out the methods herein, as performed by the radio network node or the wireless device. Furthermore, it is herein provided a computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon a computer program comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the methods herein, as performed by the radio network node or the wireless device.

According to yet still another aspect the object is achieved by providing a wireless device for handling communication of the wireless device in a wireless communication network. The wireless communication network comprises a radio network node being configured to serve the wireless device. The wireless device comprises processing circuitry and a memory, said memory comprising instructions executable by said processing circuitry whereby said wireless device is operative to perform a beam tracking of one or more beams for a set of detected neighbour cells for tracking one or more best beams of respective neighbour cell based on measured signal strength or measured signal quality. The wireless device is further operative to receive an indication from the radio network node, wherein the indication indicates a target cell for the wireless device; and, when the target cell is in the set of detected neighbour cells, to initiate a random access procedure associated with at least one target beam for the target cell. The wireless device is operative to select the at least one target beam based on the beam tracking performed prior to receiving the indication.

According to another aspect the object is achieved by providing a radio network node for handling communication of a wireless device in a wireless communication network, wherein the radio network node comprises processing circuitry and a memory. The memory comprises instructions executable by said processing circuitry whereby said radio network node is operative to serve the wireless device, and to transmit configuration data to the wireless device. The configuration data indicates that the wireless device is to perform beam tracking of one or more beams for a set of detected neighbour cells and to, upon reception of an indication, initiate a random access procedure associated with at least one target beam for a target cell. The at least one target beam is selected based on a performed beam tracking prior to receiving the indication, and wherein the indication indicates the at least one target cell for the wireless device.

Embodiments herein enable the wireless device to access a target cell, during e.g. a handover and/or establishment a secondary cell, much faster, immediately after the indication is received. This is particularly important in carriers where the signals used for beam selection for random access, in e.g. NR, these will be the signals transmitted in the so called SS Block Burst Set, are sparser in time, which may be the case in non-standalone carriers, where periodicities could be up to 160 ms, and/or the cases where, in e.g. analog beamforming, directions are multiplexed over multiple SS Burst so that it may take time for the wireless device to detect its target beam. Hence, embodiments herein improve the performance of the wireless communication network since the wireless device connects quicker to a beam of the target cell.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments will now be described in more detail in relation to the enclosed drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows CSI-RS resource allocation for a given subframe and resource block;

FIG. 2 shows channel estimation of CSI-RS transmissions;

FIG. 3 shows CSI-RS resource allocation across multiple coordinated cells;

FIG. 4 shows CSI-RS support for beam selection in LTE;

FIG. 5 shows beamformed CSI-RS in LTE;

FIG. 6 shows a CSI-RS-Config information element;

FIG. 7 shows a handover process in LTE;

FIG. 8 shows that each SS Block contains a mapping between RACH configuration and the strongest DL beam transmitting the SS Block. In this example, each PRACH occasion and/or PRACH resource is associated with two SS Blocks;

FIG. 9a shows a schematic overview depicting a wireless communication network according to embodiments herein;

FIG. 9b shows a schematic flowchart depicting a method performed by a wireless device according to embodiments herein;

FIG. 9c shows a schematic flowchart depicting a method performed by a radio network node according to embodiments herein;

FIG. 9d is a schematic combined flowchart and signalling scheme according to some embodiments herein;

FIG. 10 is a schematic combined flowchart and signalling scheme according to embodiments herein;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram depicting a wireless device according to embodiments herein; and

FIG. 12 is a block diagram depicting a radio network node according to embodiments herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments herein relate to wireless communication networks in general. FIG. 9a is a schematic overview depicting a wireless communication network 1. The wireless communication network 1 comprises one or more RANs and one or more CNs. The wireless communication network 1 may use one or a number of different technologies, such as New Radio (NR), Wi-Fi, LTE, LTE-Advanced, Fifth Generation (5G), Wideband Code-Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Global System for Mobile communications/enhanced Data rate for GSM Evolution (GSM/EDGE), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), or Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), just to mention a few possible implementations. Embodiments herein relate to recent technology trends that are of particular interest in a 5G context. However, embodiments are also applicable in further development of the existing wireless communication systems such as e.g. WCDMA and LTE.

In the wireless communication network 1, wireless devices e.g. a wireless device 10 such as a mobile station, a non-access point (non-AP) STA, a STA, a user equipment and/or a wireless terminal, communicate via one or more Access Networks (AN), e.g. RAN, to one or more core networks (CN). It should be understood by the skilled in the art that “wireless device” is a non-limiting term which means any terminal, wireless communication terminal, user equipment, Machine-Type Communication (MTC) device, Device-to-Device (D2D) terminal, or node e.g. smart phone, laptop, mobile phone, sensor, relay, mobile tablets or even a small base station capable of communicating using radio communication with a network node within an area served by the network node.

The wireless communication network 1 comprises a first radio network node 12, also referred to as merely the radio network node, providing radio coverage over a geographical area, a first service area 11 or a first beam or beam group, of a first radio access technology (RAT), such as NR, LTE, Wi-Fi, WiMAX or similar. The first radio network node 12 may be a transmission and reception point e.g. a radio network node such as a Wireless Local-Area Network (WLAN) access point or an Access Point Station (AP STA), an access node, an access controller, a base station, e.g. a radio base station such as a NodeB, an evolved Node B (eNB, eNode B), gNodeB, a base transceiver station, a radio remote unit, an Access Point Base Station, a base station router, a transmission arrangement of a radio base station, a stand-alone access point or any other network unit or node capable of communicating with a wireless device within the service area served by the first radio network node 12 depending e.g. on the first radio access technology and terminology used. The first radio network node 12 may be referred to as a serving network node wherein the first service area may be referred to as a serving cell with a number of beams, and the serving network node serves and communicates with the wireless device 10 in form of DL transmissions to the wireless device 10 and UL transmissions from the wireless device 10.

A second radio network node 13 may further provide radio coverage over a second service area 14 or a second beam or beam group of a second radio access technology (RAT), such as NR, LTE, Wi-Fi, WiMAX or similar. The first RAT and the second RAT may be the same or different RATs. The second radio network node 13 may be a transmission and reception point e.g. a radio network node such as a Wireless Local-Area Network (WLAN) access point or an Access Point Station (AP STA), an access node, an access controller, a base station, e.g. a radio base station such as a NodeB, an evolved Node B (eNB, eNode B), gNodeB, a base transceiver station, a radio remote unit, an Access Point Base Station, a base station router, a transmission arrangement of a radio base station, a stand-alone access point or any other network unit or node capable of communicating with a wireless device within the area served by the second radio network node 13 depending e.g. on the second radio access technology and terminology used. The second radio network node 13 may be referred to as a neighbour network node wherein the second service area 14 may be referred to as a neighbouring beam or target beam.

It should be noted that a service area may be denoted as a cell, a beam, a mobility measurement beam, a beam group or similar to define an area of radio coverage. The radio network nodes transmit RSs over respective service area. Hence, the first and second radio network nodes may transmit CSI-RSs or beam reference signals (BRS), repeatedly, in time, in a large number of different directions using as many Tx-beams as deemed necessary to cover an operational area of the respective radio network node. Hence the first radio network node 12 provides radio coverage over the first service area using a first reference signal, e.g. first CSI-RS, for the first service area 11 or first beam in the wireless communication network 1. The second radio network node 13 provides radio coverage over the second service area 14 using a second reference signal, e.g. second CSI-RS, for the second service area 14 or second beam in the wireless communication network.

Wireless devices may store cell based measurements taking into account best beam and/or N1 best beams. However, beams are much more unstable than the cell measurements i.e. the measurements associated to the best N beams detected and filtered at the moment the wireless device has performed may be completely outdated at the moment the wireless device receives the HO command. Hence, using these could simply lead to a wrong HO decision, which may reduce or limit the performance of the wireless communication network. I.e. using previously reported measurements instead of up-to-date measurements obtained due to beam tracking may simply lead to a wrong HO decision, i.e. selecting a wrong beam during HO. This may reduce or limit the performance of the wireless communication network. Tracking means that the measurements are not discarded and may ay be used later for RACH.

According to embodiments herein the wireless device 10 instead performs beam tracking of one or more beams, e.g. N2 best beams, associated with a set of detectable neighbour cells, e.g. based on signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) or equivalent above a certain threshold, which could be potential candidates as target cells, depending on a reception of a handover command, or equivalent, from the wireless communication network. Herein N2 may be larger than N1, as a typical N1 configuration is N1=1. A set of neighbour cells may comprise one or more neighbour cells such as the second service area 14. Hence, a best beam may be a beam with a measured signal strength or quality above e.g. the threshold or above signal strength or quality of other beams of that cell. Upon reception of an indication, such as a handover command or a secondary cell establishment command, indicating a target cell, the wireless device 10 initiates a random access procedure associated with at least one target beam for the target cell, wherein the at least one target beam is selected based on the beam tracking performed prior to receiving the indication. Since the target cell is one of the neighbor cells for which beam tracking has been performed, the at least one target beam for the target cell is the best or one of the best beams for that neighbor cell. Hence, embodiments herein improve the performance of the wireless communication network since the wireless device connects quicker to a beam of the target cell, wherein the beam is selected based on more recent measurements.

The method actions performed by the wireless device 10 for handling communication of the wireless device 10 in the wireless communication network 1 according to embodiments herein will now be described with reference to a flowchart depicted in FIG. 9b . The actions do not have to be taken in the order stated below, but may be taken in any suitable order. Actions performed in some embodiments are marked with dashed boxes. The wireless device 10 is served by a radio network node exemplified herein as the first radio network node 12.

Action 901. The wireless device 10 may receive configuration data from the first radio network node 12, wherein the configuration data indicates that the wireless device 10 is to perform beam tracking of one or more beams for a set of detected neighbour cells and upon reception of the indication, to initiate a random access procedure associated with at least one target beam for a target cell, wherein the at least one target beam is selected based on a performed beam tracking prior to receiving an indication, wherein the indication indicates a target cell for the wireless device. The configuration data may comprise one or more filter parameters for measurements of the beam tracking and/or the configuration data defines the wireless device to monitor more beams of one candidate cell than for another candidate cell. Filter parameters may be an evaluation period of measurements, a snapshot periodicity, and average over time and frequency parameters. Furthermore, information regarding random access resources, such as preamble, or time and frequency, to use may be provided in a message such as measConfig or in the configuration data.

Action 902. The wireless device 10 performs the beam tracking of one or more beams for the set of detected neighbour cells for tracking the one or more best beams of respective neighbour cell based on measured signal strength or measured signal quality. The one or more beams may be larger than the number of beams used for a cell quality derivation. The beam tracking may comprise obtaining additional information, wherein the additional information, such as preamble and/or radio resources, is used to perform the random access procedure. An occurrence of a mobility event such as any of the events A1-A6 or a wireless device movement and/or a wireless device with a speed above a speed threshold, may trigger the wireless device 10 to initiate the beam tracking. Measurements of the beam tracking may be performed at a different time scale compared to measurements used for RRM purposes. E.g. the measurements may be snapshots closer in time to one another than the measurements used for the RRM purposes, thus performed at a different time scale. Since the measurements may be snapshots closer in time to one another the measurements are collected recently. Measurements of the beam tracking may use a different time domain filtering and/or a frequency domain filtering; or the measurements of the beam tracking may be performed on a different reference signal compared to the measurements used for RRM purposes. It should be noted that the tracking can be triggered by the wireless device 10 even without received configuration data for beam reporting.

Action 903. The wireless device 10 may select and store over a time interval the one or more beams for each neighbour cell based on the performed beam tracking. This results in having recent updated one or more beams and not based on an outdated measurement. The wireless device 10 may perform a full sweep of beams before selecting the one or more beams in each neighbour cell. This is in order to get select an beam or beams as accurate as possible.

Action 904. The wireless device 10 receives the indication from the first radio network node 12, wherein the indication indicates the target cell for the wireless device 10. The indication may be a handover command or similar in an RRC message.

Action 905. The wireless device 10, when the target cell is in the set of detected neighbour cells, initiates the random access procedure associated with the at least one target beam for the target cell, wherein the at least one target beam is selected based on the beam tracking performed prior to receiving the indication. The wireless device 10 may select, in addition to the measured signal strength or measured signal quality, the at least one target beam further based on a list of allowed beams, i.e. to avoid black list beams, for the target cell for the wireless device 10. The random access procedure may be associated with the at least one target beam by random access channel resources allocated for the at least one target beam. E.g. certain random access resources such as preamble and/or time and frequency resources are allocated for a certain beam. In some embodiments, the wireless device 10 may perform measurements on reference signals, such as CSI-RS and/or SSBs, of the one or more beams for the set of detected neighbour cells, and wherein the at least one target beam for the random access procedure is selected based on the signal strength or quality of respective beam. E.g. strongest beam or the beam providing shortest RACH delay i.e. the first to appear.

The method actions performed by the radio network node, exemplified herein as the first radio network node 12, for handling communication of the wireless device in a wireless communication network 1 according to some embodiments will now be described with reference to a flowchart depicted in FIG. 9c . The actions do not have to be taken in the order stated below, but may be taken in any suitable order. Actions performed in some embodiments are marked with dashed boxes. The first radio network node 12 serves the wireless device 10. The wireless communication network 1 may further comprise the second radio network node 13.

Action 911. The first radio network node 12 may in order to configured the wireless device transmit configuration data to the wireless device 10, wherein the configuration data indicates that the wireless device is to perform beam tracking of one or more beams for a set of detected neighbour cells and to, upon reception of the indication, initiate a random access procedure associated with at least one target beam for a target cell, wherein the at least one target beam is selected based on a performed beam tracking prior to receiving the indication, wherein the indication indicates the target cell for the wireless device 10. The configuration data may comprise one or more filter parameters for measurements of the beam tracking and/or the configuration data defines the wireless device 10 to monitor more beams of one candidate cell than for another candidate cell. Hence, there can be an configuration indication telling the wireless device 10 to perform beam tracking so that at the moment the wireless device 10 receives the indication to perform random access (and then beam selection before triggering random access) the wireless device 10 uses beam tracking information that it has been previously configured to perform.

Action 912. The first radio network node 12 may receive from the wireless device 10 one or more measurement reports of one or more of detected neighbour cells such as the second service area 14.

Action 913. The first radio network node 12 may then select the target cell for the wireless device 10 based on the measurement report.

Action 914. The first radio network node 12 may then transmit the indication to the wireless device 10, wherein the indication indicates the target cell for the wireless device 10.

FIG. 9d is a combined flowchart and signalling scheme according to embodiments herein wherein the neighbour cells a and b are provided by the second radio network node 13 and a third radio network node 15.

Action 921. The first radio network node 12 may transmit a beam tracking configuration e.g. a neighbour cell beam tracking configuration, to the wireless device 10. The neighbour cell beam tracking information may comprise the set of neighbour cells to perform beam tracking on as well as beam information such as reference signals to track i.e. to perform measurements on.

Action 922. The wireless device 10 may receive the beam tracking configuration and set up the wireless device for the beam tracking. The configuration may contain (or comprise): K(i) number of tracked beams per cell, N number of tracked cells, filter parameters per beam and/or per neighbour cell, beam tracking triggering info, CSI-RS configuration per neighbour cell etc. Beam tracking is performed by continuously measuring signal strength and/or quality of a beam (or a reference signal of a beam) and keeping track of the measurements. Filter parameters may be an evaluation period of measurements, a snapshot periodicity, and average over time and frequency parameters.

Action 923. A neighbour cell ‘a’, e.g. provided by the third radio network node 15, may transmit beamformed CSI-RSs or SS blocks for its respective beam, e.g. for beams 1 to M(i) of that neighbour cell.

Action 924. The neighbour cell ‘b’, e.g. provided by the second radio network node 13, may transmit beamformed CSI-RSs or SS blocks for respective beam, e.g. for beams 1 to M(i) of that neighbour cell, e.g. service area 14.

Action 925. The wireless device 10 performs beam tracking, also referred to as neighbour cell beam tracking, e.g. beam 2 in neighbour cell ‘a’ and beam 1 in neighbour cell ‘b’. For example, measures signal strength or quality of CSI-RSs or SS blocks for respective beams of respective cell.

Action 926. The wireless device 10 continues with the beam tracking wherein measurement are updated according to e.g. the filtering configuration, e.g. with a certain periodicity or similar.

Action 927. The first radio network node 12 transmits a handover command to the wireless device 10 indicating the neighbour cell to handover the wireless device 10 to. E.g. the first radio network node 12 transmits RRCConnectionReconfiguration with mobilityControlinformation containing Cell ID and RACH configuration, e.g. preamble, time and frequency resource, per DL beam in the neighbour or target cell, e.g. cell ‘b’.

Action 928. The wireless device 10 is aware that beam 2 in cell ‘b’ is the best target beam from the beam tracking.

Action 929. The wireless device 10 looks up or selects the RACH configuration for beam 2 in neighbour cell ‘b’ from e.g. the indication such as the HO command.

Action 930. The wireless device 10 transmits a random access preamble, also referred to as RACH preamble, to the second radio network node 13 based on the RACH configuration for beam 2.

Action 931. The second radio network node 13 selects the beam of the RACH configuration. That is, based on the preamble reception the second radio network node 13, such as a target gNodeB, knows the best DL narrow beam to transmit e.g. a random access response (RAR) on e.g. the beam 2.

Action 932. The second radio network node 13 transmits the RAR in beam 2 to the wireless device 10.

Action 933. The wireless device 10 may then transmit an RRCConnectionReconfiguration complete to the second radio network node 13 confirming connection to the beam 2.

It is herein described in relation to the embodiments herein:

-   -   a tracking process, including potential triggers to reduce the         number of measurements needed, see e.g. action 1003;     -   reference signals that could be used for tracking, see e.g.         action 1002;     -   wireless device actions upon receiving the HO command (or         equivalent) with the mapping between RACH and the DL beam in the         target, see e.g. action 1005.     -   a SON function and report associated to the SON function     -   potential network signalling and/or configuration for the         wireless device actions, see e.g. action 1001.

FIG. 10 is a schematic combined flowchart and signalling scheme depicting some embodiments herein. The first radio network node 12 is serving the wireless device 10 in the wireless communication network 1, which comprises the second radio network node 13.

Action 1001. The first radio network node 12 may transmit an indication to the wireless device 10 indicating a set of candidate neighbouring cells. That is, the first radio network node 12 may configure the wireless device 10 with a set of candidates neighbouring cells. The first radio network node 12 may further configure beam-specific tracking filter parameters such as the number of snapshots per evaluation periods e.g. 40 ms snapshots within 200 ms.

The first radio network node 12 may also configure the wireless device 10 with a 35 number K of best beams to track per neighbour candidate. The first radio network node 12 may also have K(i) as a function of specific neighbour cells i.e. for some candidates the wireless device 10 may track more beams than for some other neighbour cells. That can be useful, for example, in the case there is a limitation in the maximum number of beams that could be tracked and the first radio network node 12 is aware of a more likely neighbour cell candidate then the wireless device 10 may possibly monitor more beams of this candidate than for another neighbour cell candidate.

The first radio network node 12 may also configure the wireless device 10 with a number M best cells to perform beam tracking on. In other words, if the wireless device 10 detects a maximum number of cells, only a subset of these may be candidates for beam tracking.

The first radio network node 12 may also configure the wireless device 10 to use embodiments herein or not, even on a cell basis. That may depend on the network knowledge about the periodicity the signals are being transmitted and/or the usage of beamforming in the neighbour cells.

The first radio network node 12 may also configure the wireless device 10 to use a given reference signal or sets of reference signals for the feature. For example, as described above, the wireless device 10 could be configured with the CSI-RS for the tracking and/or signal(s) in the SS Block such as PSS, SSS, TSS and/or DMRS for PBCH. This is some examples of the action 911 in FIG. 9 c.

Action 1002. The second radio network node 13 transmits its beams, i.e. the second radio network node 13 transmits reference signals (RS) associated with a respective beam, e.g. PSS, SSS, TSS, DMRS, CSI-RS, BRS, or similar of respective beam.

Action 1003. The wireless device 10 performs beam tracking of the N best beams of the set of detected neighbour cell candidates. The wireless device 10 may track, repeatedly measure on the reference signals transmitted from the network node, a number of beams over a set time interval. The beam tracking may be performed in a different time scale compared to the measurements used for RRM purposes i.e. measurements to trigger mobility events to support mobility, carrier aggregation, dual connectivity, inter-RAT dual connectivity, i.e. dual connectivity from different RATs such as LTE and NR tight interworking, procedures. E.g. the measurements of the beam tracking may be performed more often i.e. with a short periodicity compared to a periodicity of an RRM measurement.

The tracking process can be performed as a filtering process for filtering out beams with too low measured signal strength or quality, which could either be configured by the network or done via wireless device implementation. The wireless device 10 may collect snapshots of the RSs transmitted in DL beams by the neighbour cell candidates and may perform coherent and non-coherent averages per beams. Filtering may occur in the time domain, the frequency domain or both time and frequency domain. The N best beams per snapshot may be detected based e.g. on peaks in the signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), reference signal received power (RSRP) or reference signal received quality (RSRQ), and identified via some implicit or explicit beam identification in the RS, e.g. time/frequency resources or even some identifier e.g. TSS. For the beam tracking purpose, the snapshot may not combine beam values, e.g. average, with each other but instead separate them. The N best beams may e.g. be the instantaneous beam values at time t(n-1).

Subsequent snapshots could be taken, e.g. not far apart from each other. The wireless device 10 may collect multiple samples of the same beam in the target cell and possibly combine them to form some average per beam SINR or RSRP. If N varies from one snapshot to another the wireless device 10 may discard or at least separate beams with less samples. In the case subsequent samples are used, the timing may be different compared to the timing used for the cell level measurements since for the snapshots need to be much closer in time otherwise these will be outdated measurements at the moment of the handover.

The wireless device 10 may constantly perform this tracking process for each detected neighbour cell (or explicitly configured neighbour cell by the first radio network node). The wireless device 10 may perform the beam tracking right after detecting that a given cell is a neighbour cell candidate. The advantage of triggering the beam tracking even before any report is transmitted is that the network may trigger blind or semi-blind handovers or blind or semi-blind establishment of dual connectivity or carrier aggregation or tight interworking with LTE via dual connectivity i.e. at that time the wireless device 10 would already have these per beam measurements. Alternatively, the wireless device 10 may start the beam tracking (tracking process) only after triggering one of the configured mobility events (such as events similar to the events A1, A2, . . . , A6 in LTE) or after sending one of these in measurement reports. That may relax the wireless device 10 constraint to not have to perform per beam measurements and store them.

The wireless device 10 may be configured with a special mobility event that triggers the wireless device 10 to initiate per beam measurements. The special mobility events may be a conditional event i.e. only triggered after one of the mobility events like events A1, A2, . . . , A6 in LTE are triggered. Alternatively, that is simply done via threshold adjustment or alignment of the events.

The wireless device 10 may be configured by the first radio network node 12 to initiate the beam tracking for a set of specific target cells, possibly previously reported as good candidates or known by the first radio network node 12 as possibly detectable by the wireless device 10.

The beam tracking or tracking procedure may also contain aspects related to the beamforming of the wireless device 10, both in terms of wireless device reception beamforming to detect the strongest DL beam or/and wireless device transmission beamforming to transmit the RACH preamble associated to the strongest being the best DL beam in the target. For example, the wireless device 10 may perform a full sweep of its Reception (Rx) beamforming, i.e. measuring on all possible beams of each cell, before selecting the best beam in each target candidate cell. That may provide additional information, especially in the case the measurements per beam have low SINR, RSRP, or RSRQ. The wireless device 10 may use the additional information to improve its PRACH preamble transmission i.e. to send the equivalent direction. This would be a tracking of the best Transmission (Tx) beam of the wireless device 10 to transmit the RACH in the target.

Other potential triggers of the beam tracking may be related to the wireless device movements or wireless device speed where beam tracking becomes even more important.

The wireless device 10 may perform beam tracking on always on or periodic reference signals that are transmitted in DL beam by the neighbour cells. These could be any signal in the SS Block, such as the PSS, the SSS, the TSS and/or DMRSs defined for the PBCH demodulation. In that case, the neighbour cell identification may be done via the PSS and/or SSS, while the TSS may be used to distinguish the beams, if subsequent snapshots are needed.

The wireless device 10 perform beam tracking on, in addition and/or instead, CSI-RSs. These CIS-RSs may be configured per neighbour cell e.g. after measurement reports are transmitted by the wireless device 10 indicating the best cells. In the case the wireless device 10 reports best beams per cell (e.g. based on the long term averages done per cell) the network can use that information to trigger narrow CSI-RS beams to be monitored instead of a full sweep for the target cell candidates, i.e. the number of RS searched for may be reduced. The wireless device 10 may be aware of the CSI-RS transmissions in the target cell, e.g. the time/frequency resources that are transmitted, the bandwidth, sequences to search for, etc.). That could have been previously configured by the network as part of the measurement configuration in the serving cell. These are examples of the action 902 in FIG. 9 b.

Action 1004. The first radio network node 12 may decide to request a handover for the wireless device 10 (or a set of wireless devices) to a specific candidate target service area associated to the second radio network node 13. The first radio network node 12 then transmits, to the wireless device 10, a handover command or a message indicating a handover of the wireless device to the second radio network node 13 being examples of the indication in action 904 in FIG. 9b and action 914 in FIG. 9 c.

Action 1005. Upon receiving the indication such as the handover command (e.g. RRCConnectionReconfiguration with mobilityControlInformation or equivalent), that indication is to be used to trigger a handover or the establishment of a secondary cell, the wireless device 10 uses the result of the beam tracking (up-to-date information) to initiate random access procedure with the target, i.e. the second radio network node 13, without necessarily waiting to perform additional measurements to select the best DL beam to map to its configured RACH resources.

The wireless device 10 has up-to-date information about the best DL beam for a set or subset of the neighbour cells. If the target cell indicated in the HO command is within the set of the neighbour cells for which the wireless device 10 has up-to-date measurements concerning the best beam (where up-to-date can be defined by the network or via implementation, although that may probably be defined as some time elapsed from the latest snapshot to the time the HO command is received) and the best beam is in a list of allowed beams for the target (jointly with the RACH configuration per beam) the wireless device 10 may initiate a random access procedure to the radio network node associated with the best beam by sending a preamble in the HO command per DL matching the best beam. In other words, the wireless device 10 may send the configured preamble in the time-frequency resources matching the best DL beam in the target cell based on the performed beam tracking.

If the target cell indicated in the HO command is within the set of the neighbour cells for which the wireless device 10 has up-to-date measurements concerning the best beam (where up-to-date can be defined by the network or via implementation, although that would be some time elapsed from the latest snapshot to the time the HO command is received) but the best beam is not in the list of allowed beams for the target (jointly with the RACH configuration per beam) the wireless device 10 may check the availability of the second best beam associated to that target. Notice that availability may depend whether the wireless device 10 has performed measurement for the best or also for the other K-1 best beams per target. On the network side, K best beams for tracking could have been configured when it is known that target cells might be overloaded so that it is might be good if the wireless device 10 has some alternative beams to access. If the HO command contains one of the tracked K-1 best beams the wireless device 10 initiates a random access procedure assuming that one as the best beam by sending a preamble in the HO command per DL matching the best beam. In other words, the wireless device 10 may send the configured preamble in the time-frequency resources matching the k-th best DL beam in the target cell based on the tracking depending on the availability of measurements.

If the target cell indicated in the HO command is within the set of the neighbour cells for which the wireless device 10 has up-to-date measurements concerning the best beam (where up-to-date can be defined by the network or via implementation, although that would be some time elapsed from the latest snapshot to the time the HO command is received) but is any of the available k-th best beam in the list of allowed beams for the target (jointly with the RACH configuration per beam) the wireless device 10 may trigger a fallback procedure and wait to select the best beam in the target cell before initiating random access.

If the target cell indicated in the HO command is not within the set of the neighbour cells for which the wireless device 10 has up-to-date measurements concerning the best beam (where up-to-date can be defined by the network or via implementation, although that would be some time elapsed from the latest snapshot to the time the HO command is received) then the wireless device 10 triggers the fallback procedures as described in the previous paragraph i.e. wait to select the best beam in the configured target cell before initiating random access. In that particular case synchronization may be needed.

These are examples of the action 905 in FIG. 9 b.

Action 1006. The wireless device 10 then sends the RACH preamble to the second radio network node 13 e.g. transmit the configured preamble in the time-frequency resources matching the best DL beam in the target cell based on the performed beam tracking.

Action 1007. Upon the reception of the RACH preamble in the time/frequency resource that maps to a given DL beam, the second radio network node 13 detects what is the strongest DL narrow beam covering the wireless device 10.

Action 1008. The second radio network node 13 may then respond to the wireless device with a random access response (RAR) to the wireless device 10. This may be transmitted using the detected beam or another beam.

Action 1009. The second radio network node 13 may then perform user plane (UP) communication (DL or UL) with the wireless device 10 using the narrow beam associated with the RACH configuration of the random access procedure performed by the wireless device 10.

Thus, embodiments herein disclose the wireless device 10 tracking beams of the target neighbour cell candidates to improve the handover performance in terms of latency.

It is herein disclosed a method performed by a wireless device for handling communication of the wireless device in a wireless communication network. A first radio network node serves the wireless device and the wireless communication network further comprises a second radio network node. The wireless device performs a beam tracking of one or more best beams for (or of) a set of detected neighbour cells (candidates). The wireless device further receives an indication, e.g. a handover command, from the first radio network node, which indication indicates a handover of the wireless device to a neighbour cell. When the neighbour cell is in the set of detected neighbour cells, the wireless device initiates a random access procedure associated with the best beam according to the beam tracking for that neighbour cell.

It is herein disclosed a method performed by a first radio network node for handling communication of a wireless device in a wireless communication network. The first radio network node serves the wireless device and the wireless communication network further comprises a second radio network node. The first radio network node transmits configuration data i.e. configures the wireless device with data, which data indicates that the wireless device is to perform beam tracking of one or more best beams for (or of) a set of detected neighbour cells.

According to embodiments herein the wireless device performs beam tracking of N best beams of (or from) a set of detected neighbour cell candidates. That can be performed in a different time scale compared to the measurements used for RRM purposes i.e. to trigger mobility events to support mobility, carrier aggregation, dual connectivity, inter-RAT dual connectivity (LTE/NR tight interworking) procedures.

The previous embodiments describe the DL beam selection performed on neighbour cells to speed up the handover execution. In this embodiment the wireless device 10 may perform a DL beam selection on its serving cell to speed up beam recovery procedure where the wireless device 10 sends an UL message to inform the first radio network node which DL wide beams should be used to transmit to the wireless device 10 its DL control channel e.g. Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH). If the embodiment is not implemented, the wireless device 10 would need to detect the failure based on narrow beamformed DL signals (such as CSI-RS), wait for the next occurrence of cell based wide beam transmissions in an SS Block Set and, based on that DL reference transmits an UL message (e.g. a scheduling request on Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) or RACH preamble on PRACH). In any case beam recovery relies on the wireless device 10 detecting the best available DL beam as timing reference so the network, the first radio network node, can be detecting the right direction (e.g. with analog beamforming).

The proposed tracking for the serving cell in this embodiment for beam recovery occurs as follows: the L1 of the wireless device 10 collects a snapshot and/or sample of SS Block Burst and/or Burst Set and provide cell level quality to L3. The wireless device 10 then stores the values of the N best beams that will be filtered every measurement window period. These are constantly stored at the wireless device 10 and updated according to a beam-based filter, which could be configured by the network. When a beam failure process is detected, such as based on PDCCH failure and/or narrow DL beam failure, the wireless device 10 may try to choose a DL reference in a wide beam. Thanks to beam tracking, immediately after the detection of narrow beam failure the wireless device 10 can trigger the beam recovery i.e. without waiting for the next occurrence of an SS Block Set which may take 160 ms in some scenarios. At the network side e.g. the first radio network node 12, the detection of the UL signal allows the network to transmit in a wide beam the PDCCH for that wireless device 10 to either schedule data or confirm a successful recovery. The wireless device has the N best, so if a confirmation is expected during some kind of window (e.g. beam recovery RAR window) the wireless device 10 may transmit the request associated to the second best and so on.

Embodiments herein also cover a possible Self Organizing Network (SON) function to optimize the procedure.

SON Function and Report Associated to the SON Function

In the fallback case, e.g. when the target cell indicated in the HO command is not within the set of the neighbour cells mentioned in action 1004, the wireless device 10 may have been previously configured by the network to store the information that a “failure” has occurred i.e. none of the best beams were in the subset allowed by the target. That may be reported in a message such as a HO complete message, or equivalent in the case of dual connectivity (DC), in the target and forwarded to the serving cell, via an inter-node interface like Xn in NR. That can be used as an input to SON functions so in future configurations the serving and target cells may allow that beam to be accessed and/or trigger the CSI-RS beams associated to that best beam(s) in the target(s). The message indicating failure may also be requested by the network e.g. a network node such as a MME or similar, after the wireless device 10 is connected to the second radio network node 13.

The message may be stored at least in one of these two cases, with the following information:

-   -   HO command contains a cell that was not in the set such as a         list of neighbour cells on which the wireless device 10 was         performing beam tracking. In that case the message, also         referred to as a report, may contain the target cell ID, the         serving cell ID, the beams tracked in each neighbour candidate         and their RSRP (or equivalent) values.     -   HO command contains a cell that was in the list the wireless         device 10 was performing neighbour cell beam tracking, however,         any of the beams tracked for that neighbour cell were not in the         allowed list of accessible beams. In that case, the wireless         device 10 stores and reports target cell ID, the serving cell         ID, the beams tracked in each neighbour candidate and their RSRP         (or equivalent) values. Other information is not precluded.

The message may be a single report or different reports for different failures i.e. the two cases.

The purpose of these reports could be to either allow the network such as the network node to activate more beams for certain target cells in the future, enable target cells to trigger specific DL beams to transmit CSI-RS to assist CSI-RS based handovers and/or RRM measurements (on demand), etc.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram depicting two embodiments of the wireless device 10 according to embodiments herein for handling communication of the wireless device 10 in the wireless communication network 1, wherein the wireless communication network 1 comprises the radio network node such as the first radio network node 12 being configured to serve the wireless device 10. The wireless communication network 1 may further comprise the second radio network node 13.

The wireless device 10 may comprise processing circuitry 1101, e.g. one or more processors, configured to perform the methods herein.

The wireless device 10 may comprise a beam tracking module 1102. The wireless device 10, the processing circuitry 1101, and/or the beam tracking module 1102 is configured to perform the beam tracking of one or more beams for the set of detected neighbour cells for tracking one or more best beam of respective neighbour cell based on measured signal strength or measured signal quality. E.g. perform beam tracking of one or more best beams from (or of) a set of detected neighbour cell candidates. The wireless device 10, the processing circuitry 1101, and/or the beam tracking module 1102 may be configured to select and store over a time interval one or more beams for each neighbour cell based on the performed beam tracking. The wireless device 10, the processing circuitry 1101, and/or the beam tracking module 1102 may be configured to perform the beam tracking by being configured to perform a full sweep of beams before selecting the one or more beams in each neighbour cell. The wireless device 10, the processing circuitry 1101, and/or the beam tracking module 1102 may be configured to obtain additional information during the beam tracking, wherein the additional information is used to perform the random access procedure. The wireless device 10, the processing circuitry 1101, and/or the beam tracking module 1102 may be configured to initiate the beam tracking being triggered by an occurrence of a mobility event. The wireless device 10, the processing circuitry 1101, and/or the beam tracking module 1102 may be configured to perform measurements of the beam tracking at a different time scale compared to measurements used for RRM purposes. E.g. the measurements may be snapshots closer in time to one another than the measurements used for the RRM purposes.

The wireless device 10 may comprise a receiving module 1103, e.g. a receiver or a transceiver. The wireless device 10, the processing circuitry 1101, and/or the receiving module 1103 is configured to receive the indication from the radio network node 12, wherein the indication indicates the target cell for the wireless device 10. The indication e.g. a handover command indicates a handover of the wireless device to a neighbour cell.

The wireless device 10 may comprise an initiating module 1104, e.g. a transmitter or a transceiver. The wireless device 10, the processing circuitry 1101, and/or the initiating module 1104 is configured to initiate, when the target cell is in the set of detected neighbour cells, the random access procedure associated with the at least one target beam for the target cell, and wherein the wireless device 10, the processing circuitry 1101, and/or the initiating module 1104 is further configured to select the at least one target beam based on the beam tracking performed prior to receiving the indication. The random access procedure may be associated with the at least one target beam by random access channel resources allocated for the at least one target beam. The wireless device 10, the processing circuitry 1101, and/or the initiating module 1104 may be configured to initiate the random access procedure based on the received indication and a result of the beam tracking performed. The wireless device 10, the processing circuitry 1101, and/or the initiating module 1104 may be configured to initiate a random access procedure to the radio network node associated with the best beam for the indicated neighbour cell in the HO command by sending a preamble per the best beam. The wireless device 10, the processing circuitry 1101, and/or the beam tracking module 1102 may be configured to perform the beam tracking by being configured to perform measurements on reference signals, such as SSB or CSI-RS, of the one or more beams for the set of detected neighbour cells, these may be the same or different compared to measurements for RRM purposes. The wireless device 10, the processing circuitry 1101, and/or the initiating module 1104 may then be configured to select the at least one target beam for the random access procedure based on the signal strength or quality of respective beam. The wireless device 10, the processing circuitry 1101, and/or the initiating module 1104 may then be configured to select the at least one target beam further based on the list of allowed beams for the target cell for the wireless device 10.

The wireless device 10 may comprise a configuring module 1105. The wireless device 10, the processing circuitry 1101, and/or the configuring module 1105 may be configured to receive configuration data from the radio network node 12. The configuration data may indicate to the wireless device to perform the methods herein, i.e. the configuration data indicates that the wireless device 10 is to perform beam tracking of one or more beams for a set of detected neighbour cells and upon reception of the indication to initiate a random access procedure associated with the at least one target beam for a target cell, wherein the at least one target beam is selected based on a performed beam tracking prior to receiving the indication, wherein the indication indicates the target cell for the wireless device. The configuration data may further comprise one or more filter parameters for measurements of the beam tracking and/or the configuration data may define the wireless device 10 to monitor more beams of one candidate cell than for another candidate cell.

The wireless device 10 further comprises a memory 1106. The memory comprises one or more units to be used to store data on, such as RS configurations, mappings, beam tracking, mobility events, strengths or qualities, set of neighbour cells, parameters, applications to perform the methods disclosed herein when being executed, and similar. The wireless device 10 may further comprise a communication interface 1109 comprising e.g. a transmitter, a transceiver, a receiver, and/or one or more antennas.

The methods according to the embodiments described herein for the wireless device 10 are respectively implemented by means of e.g. a computer program 1107 or a computer program product, comprising instructions, i.e., software code portions, which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the wireless device 10. The computer program 1107 may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium 1108, e.g. a disc, a universal serial bus (USB) stick or similar. The computer-readable storage medium 1108, having stored thereon the computer program, may comprise the instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the wireless device 10. In some embodiments, the computer-readable storage medium may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium or a transitory computer-readable storage medium.

Thus, the wireless device may comprise the processing circuitry and the memory, said memory comprising instructions executable by said processing circuitry whereby said wireless device 10 is operative to perform the methods herein.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram depicting two embodiments of the radio network node exemplified as the first radio network node 12 according to embodiments herein for handling communication of the wireless device 10 in the wireless communication network. The first radio network node 12 is configured to serve the wireless device 10 and the wireless communication network 1 may further comprise the second radio network node 13.

The first radio network node 12 may comprise processing circuitry 1201, e.g. one or more processors, configured to perform the methods herein.

The first radio network node 12 may comprise a configuring module 1202, e.g. a transmitter or a transceiver. The first radio network node 12, the processing circuitry 1201, and/or the configuring module 1202 is configured to transmit configuration data to the wireless device 10. The configuration data indicates that the wireless device 10 is to perform the methods herein i.e. to perform beam tracking of the one or more beams for the set of detected neighbour cells and to, upon reception of the indication, initiate a random access procedure associated with at least one target beam for a target cell, wherein the at least one target beam is selected based on a performed beam tracking prior to receiving the indication, wherein the indication indicates the target cell for the wireless device 10. The configuration data may further comprise one or more filter parameters for measurements of the beam tracking and/or the configuration data defines the wireless device 10 to monitor more beams of one candidate cell than for another candidate cell.

The first radio network node 12 may comprise a transmitting module 1203, e.g. a transmitter or a transceiver. The first radio network node 12, the processing circuitry 1201, and/or the transmitting module 1203 may be configured to transmit the indication, e.g. the handover command, to the wireless device 10.

The first radio network node 12 further comprises a memory 1204. The memory comprises one or more units to be used to store data on, such as RS configurations, mappings, indications, messages, set of neighbour cells, strengths or qualities, parameters, applications to perform the methods disclosed herein when being executed, and similar. The first radio network node 12 may further comprise a communication interface 1207 comprising e.g. a transmitter, a transceiver, a receiver, and/or one or more antennas.

The methods according to the embodiments described herein for the first radio network node 12 are respectively implemented by means of e.g. a computer program 1205 or a computer program product, comprising instructions, i.e., software code portions, which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the first radio network node 12. The computer program 1205 may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium 1206, e.g. a disc, a USB stick, or similar. The computer-readable storage medium 1206, having stored thereon the computer program, may comprise the instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the first radio network node 12. In some embodiments, the computer-readable storage medium may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium or a transitory computer-readable storage medium.

Thus, the first radio network node 12 may comprise the processing circuitry and the memory, said memory comprising instructions executable by said processing circuitry whereby said radio network node is operative to perform the methods herein.

In some embodiments a more general term “radio network node” is used and it can correspond to any type of radio network node or any network node, which communicates with a wireless device and/or with another network node. Examples of network nodes are NodeB, Master eNB, Secondary eNB, a network node belonging to Master cell group (MCG) or Secondary Cell Group (SCG), base station (BS), multi-standard radio (MSR) radio node such as MSR BS, eNodeB, network controller, radio network controller (RNC), base station controller (BSC), relay, donor node controlling relay, base transceiver station (BTS), access point (AP), transmission points, transmission nodes, Remote Radio Unit (RRU), Remote Radio Head (RRH), nodes in distributed antenna system (DAS), core network node e.g. Mobility Switching Centre (MSC), Mobile Management Entity (MME) etc, Operation and Maintenance (O&M), Operation Support System (OSS), Self-Organizing Network (SON), positioning node e.g. Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centre (E-SMLC), Minimizing Drive Test (MDT) node etc.

It should be noted that in a general scenario the term “radio network node” can be substituted with “transmission and reception point”. It is allowed to make a distinction between the transmission reception points (TRPs), typically based on RSs or different synchronization signals and BRSs transmitted. Several TRPs may be logically connected to the same radio network node but if they are geographically separated, or are pointing in different propagation directions, the TRPs will be subject to the same issues as different radio network nodes. In subsequent sections, the terms “radio network node” and “TRP” can be thought of as interchangeable.

It should further be noted that a wireless communication network may be virtually network sliced into a number of Network (and/or RAN) slices, each Network (and/or RAN) slice supports one or more type of wireless devices and/or one or more type of services i.e. each network slice supports a different set of functionalities. Network slicing introduces the possibility that the Network (and/or RAN) slices are used for different services and use cases and these services and use cases may introduce differences in the functionality supported in the different network slices. Each Network (and/or RAN) slice may comprise one or more network nodes or elements of network nodes providing the services/functionalities for the respective network slice. Each Network (and/or RAN) slice may comprise a network node such as a RAN node and/or a core network node.

In some embodiments the non-limiting term wireless device or user equipment (UE) is used and it refers to any type of wireless device communicating with a network node and/or with another UE in a cellular or mobile communication system. Examples of UE are target device, device-to-device (D2D) UE, proximity capable UE (aka ProSe UE), machine type UE or UE capable of machine to machine (M2M) communication, PDA, PAD, Tablet, mobile terminals, smart phone, laptop embedded equipped (LEE), laptop mounted equipment (LME), USB dongles etc.

The embodiments are described for 5G. However the embodiments are applicable to any RAT or multi-RAT systems, where the UE receives and/or transmit signals (e.g. data) e.g. LTE, LTE Frequency Division Duplex/Time Division Duplex (FDD/TDD), WCDMA/HSPA, GSM/GERAN, Wi Fi, WLAN, CDMA2000 etc.

Antenna node is a unit capable of producing one or more beams covering a specific service area or direction. An antenna node can be a base station, or a part of a base station.

As will be readily understood by those familiar with communications design, that functions means or modules may be implemented using digital logic and/or one or more microcontrollers, microprocessors, or other digital hardware. In some embodiments, several or all of the various functions may be implemented together, such as in a single application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or in two or more separate devices with appropriate hardware and/or software interfaces between them. Several of the functions may be implemented on a processor shared with other functional components of a wireless device or network node, for example.

Alternatively, several of the functional elements of the processing means discussed may be provided through the use of dedicated hardware, while others are provided with hardware for executing software, in association with the appropriate software or firmware. Thus, the term “processor” or “controller” as used herein does not exclusively refer to hardware capable of executing software and may implicitly include, without limitation, digital signal processor (DSP) hardware, and the memory may comprise read-only memory (ROM) for storing software, random-access memory for storing software and/or program or application data, and non-volatile memory. Other hardware, conventional and/or custom, may also be included. Designers of communications devices will appreciate the cost, performance, and maintenance tradeoffs inherent in these design choices.

It will be appreciated that the foregoing description and the accompanying drawings represent non-limiting examples of the methods and apparatus taught herein. As such, the apparatus and techniques taught herein are not limited by the foregoing description and accompanying drawings. Instead, the embodiments herein are limited only by the following claims and their legal equivalents. 

1. A method performed by a wireless device for handling communication of the wireless device in a wireless communication network, wherein the wireless device is served by a radio network node, the method comprising: performing a beam tracking of one or more beams for a set of detected neighbour cells for tracking one or more best beams of respective neighbour cell based on measured signal strength or measured signal quality; receiving an indication from the radio network node, wherein the indication indicates a target cell for the wireless device; and when the target cell is in the set of detected neighbour cells, initiating a random access procedure associated with at least one target beam for the target cell, wherein the at least one target beam is selected based on the beam tracking performed prior to receiving the indication.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein performing the beam tracking comprises performing measurements on reference signals of the one or more beams for the set of detected neighbour cells, and wherein the at least one target beam for the random access procedure is selected based on the signal strength or quality of respective beam.
 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one target beam is selected further based on a list of allowed beams for the target cell for the wireless device.
 4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising selecting and storing over a time interval the one or more beams for each neighbour cell based on the performed beam tracking.
 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the beam tracking comprises performing a full sweep of the one or more beams before selecting the one or more beams in each neighbour cell.
 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the random access procedure is associated with the at least one target beam by random access channel resources allocated for the at least one target beam.
 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the beam tracking comprises obtaining additional information, wherein the additional information is used to perform the random access procedure.
 8. The method according to claim 1, wherein an occurrence of a mobility event triggers the wireless device to initiate the beam tracking.
 9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising receiving configuration data from the radio network node, wherein the configuration data indicates that the wireless device is to perform beam tracking of one or more beams for a set of detected neighbour cells and upon reception of the indication, to initiate a random access procedure associated with at least one target beam for a target cell, wherein the at least one target beam is selected based on a performed beam tracking prior to receiving the indication, wherein the indication indicates the target cell for the wireless device.
 10. The method according to claim 1, wherein measurements of the beam tracking is performed at a different time scale compared to measurements used for radio resource management, RRM, purposes, wherein the measurements are snapshots closer in time to one another than the measurements used for the RRM purposes.
 11. A method performed by a radio network node for handling communication of a wireless device in a wireless communication network, wherein the radio network node serves the wireless device, the method comprising: transmitting configuration data to the wireless device, wherein the configuration data indicates that the wireless device is to perform beam tracking of one or more best beams for a set of detected neighbour cells and upon reception of an indication, to initiate a random access procedure associated with at least one target beam for a target cell, wherein the at least one target beam is selected based on a performed beam tracking prior to receiving the indication, wherein the indication indicates a target cell for the wireless device.
 12. The method according to the claim 11, wherein the configuration data comprises one or more filter parameters for measurements of the beam tracking and/or the configuration data defines the wireless device to monitor more beams of one candidate cell than for another candidate cell. 13-26. (canceled)
 27. A wireless device for handling communication of the wireless device in a wireless communication network, wherein the wireless communication network comprises a radio network node being configured to serve the wireless device, and wherein the wireless device comprises processing circuitry and a memory, said memory comprising instructions executable by said processing circuitry whereby said wireless device is operative to: perform a beam tracking of one or more beams for a set of detected neighbour cells for tracking one or more best beams of respective neighbour cell based on measured signal strength or measured signal quality; receive an indication from the radio network node, wherein the indication indicates a target cell for the wireless device; and, when the target cell is in the set of detected neighbour cells, to initiate a random access procedure associated with at least one target beam for the target cell, and wherein the wireless device is operative to select the at least one target beam based on the beam tracking performed prior to receiving the indication.
 28. The wireless device according to claim 27, wherein the wireless device is operative to perform the beam tracking by being operative to perform measurements on reference signals of the one or more beams for the set of detected neighbour cells, and wherein the wireless device is operative to select the at least one target beam for the random access procedure based on the signal strength or quality of respective beam.
 29. The wireless device according to claim 27, wherein the wireless device is operative to select the at least one target beam further based on a list of allowed beams for the target cell for the wireless device.
 30. The wireless device according to claim 27, further being operative to select and store over a time interval the one or more beams for each neighbour cell based on the performed beam tracking.
 31. The wireless device according to claim 30, wherein the wireless device is operative to perform the beam tracking by being operative to perform a full sweep of beams before selecting the one or more beams in each neighbour cell.
 32. The wireless device according to claim 27, wherein the random access procedure is associated with the at least one target beam by random access channel resources allocated for the at least one target beam.
 33. The wireless device according to claim 27, wherein the wireless device is operative to obtain additional information during the beam tracking, wherein the additional information is used to perform the random access procedure.
 34. The wireless device according to claim 27, wherein the wireless device is operative to initiate the beam tracking being triggered by an occurrence of a mobility event.
 35. The wireless device according to claim 27, wherein the wireless device is operative to receive configuration data from the radio network node, wherein the configuration data indicates that the wireless device is to perform beam tracking of one or more beams for a set of detected neighbour cells and upon reception of the indication to initiate a random access procedure associated with at least one target beam for a target cell, wherein the at least one target beam is selected based on a performed beam tracking prior to receiving the indication, wherein the indication indicates the target cell for the wireless device.
 36. The wireless device according to claim 27, wherein the wireless device is operative to perform measurements of the beam tracking at a different time scale compared to measurements used for radio resource management, RRM, purposes, wherein the measurements are snapshots closer in time to one another than the measurements used for the RRM purposes.
 37. A radio network node for handling communication of a wireless device in a wireless communication network, wherein the radio network node comprises processing circuitry and a memory, said memory comprising instructions executable by said processing circuitry whereby said radio network node is operative to serve the wireless device, and to: transmit configuration data to the wireless device, wherein the configuration data indicates that the wireless device is to perform beam tracking of one or more beams for a set of detected neighbour cells and to, upon reception of an indication, initiate a random access procedure associated with at least one target beam for a target cell, wherein the at least one target beam is selected based on a performed beam tracking prior to receiving the indication, and wherein the indication indicates the at least one target cell for the wireless device.
 38. The radio network node according to the claim 37, wherein the configuration data comprises one or more filter parameters for measurements of the beam tracking and/or the configuration data defines the wireless device to monitor more beams of one candidate cell than for another candidate cell. 